Council gets updates on proposed business park

Crescent Resources gave a presentation March 28 to the Mount Holly City Council detailing the economic benefits and challenges of the proposed Mount Holly Business Park.

The Charlotte-based real estate company wants to build the commercial and industrial business park on Mountain Island Lake, between the city’s water treatment plant and Mountain Island Lake dam. But in order to be viable, the park would need access to the city’s water and sewer utilities, and that would require the town to annex the 128-acre tract.

Crescent Resources originally requested the annexation, but held off to address public concerns. The request will come back to the council at 7 p.m. April 11 at the Mount Holly Municipal Complex.

Dale Stewart, president of Land Design, which represents Crescent told the council the site bordered CSX railroad and had issues with topography and crossing power lines.

Despite those challenges, Stewart said the site had many benefits for the city if it chose to annex the property. The site would likely yield 500,000 square feet of buildings in a few sites. The buildings would be constructed in phases.

“The site is in the county so the city benefits from tax revenues,” Stewart said. “If we built 500,000 square feet of buildings in multiple spaces and used a conservative figure of $100 a square foot, we’d add a quarter of a million dollars in revenue to the city, based on your current tax rate.”

Mount Holly Planning Board members expressed concerns about some uses being allowed in industrial zoning that “might be objective and intrusive” and “not preferred by the city” at the park, Stewart said. A draft deed restriction has been prepared to restrict the ability to allow those uses at the park, he said.

Councilman Perry Toomey said he was concerned with the park’s effect on traffic N.C. 273.

“The wear and tear on the road itself is beginning to break up, and it was paved some two years ago,” he said. “That is the real concern of mine as a citizen of Mount Holly.”

Stewart said he understood Toomey’s concerns, but the North Carolina Department of Transportation would do a traffic impact analysis on the site before any driveway permits were issued. Roadway officials have brought up the idea of making the northbound entrance to Mountain Island Road be a dedicated right lane to help ease traffic, he said.